Analyzing data and assigning people to the correct families requires a combination of common sense, a knowledge of history, and a marshaling of sources. How-to books will give some suggestions, though, beyond obvious matters, such as a plausible chronology, it is very difficult to explain analytical techniques in a brief discussion. One book devoted to the subject is Noel C. Stevenson, Genealogical Evidence: A Guide to the Standard of Proof Relating to Pedigrees, Ancestry, Heirship and Family History (Laguna Hills, Calif.: Aegean Park Press, 1979). This book overemphasizes legal standards of proof but is well worth reading nonetheless.

Experienced genealogists are distinguished by an ability to analyze record sources. Anyone can extract names from appropriate records; but if you can't identify relationships and find meaning in these extractions, the records are essentially useless. All genealogical conclusions must be based on accurately recorded, carefully documented, and exhaustively analyze records. No possible clue should be ignored, no stone left unturned. Because of the ample record sources that are available‹the chapters that follow will impress even experts‹there is no reason to assemble a pedigree without convincing proof.

A second important point is that you seek explicit proof for asserting that any two records apply to the same person. Far too many erroneous pedigrees have used slapdash "name's-the-same" assumptions. Say, for example, that a birth record for a John Smith dated twenty-five years prior to the marriage of another John Smith in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, was found. Because the groom is known to have been approximately twenty-five years old when he married, can he be correctly assumed to be the John Smith of the birth record? No. He may well be, but without analysis of other records and the family situation, you cannot responsibly make such a conclusion.

A comprehensive discussion of the analytical process and evaluation of evidence can be found in Johni Cerny and Arlene H. Eakle, Ancestry's Guide to Research (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1984). See also the old but still sound Derek Harland, Genealogical Research Standards (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1970), chapters 2-4, and the lively and eccentric Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Applied Genealogy (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1988). A helpful essay is Robert C. Anderson and Neil D. Thompson, "Evaluating Evidence: The Test of a Good Genealogist" (a paper presented at the Third Annual Conference in the States, National Genealogical Society, Fort Worth, Texas, 16 April 1983).